Jamaica remains firmly among countries where corruption is deemed to be pervasive, according to Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranking.
In fact, Jamaica slipped one place from 69th in 2020, to 70th in the latest rankings. This makes Jamaica the fifth most corrupt country in the Caribbean behind Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Jamaica remains at 44 on the CPI.
Based on the index, a score of zero is considered to be highly corrupt while 100 is regarded as very clean.
Transparency International ranked Barbados the least corrupt country in the region, with a score of 65 out of 100 and a ranking of 29th out of 180 countries.
The CPI is regarded as the most widely used global corruption ranking in the world. It measures how corrupt each country’s public sector is perceived to be, according to experts and business people.
The data sources used to compile the CPI consider issues such as bribery, diversion of public funds, officials using their public office for private gain without facing consequences, and the ability of governments to contain corruption in the public sector among others.
Transparency International lamented that two years into the coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 CPI revealed that corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide. It offered, for the first time, a comprehensive look at a decade of corruption.
“Overall, the CPI shows that control of corruption has stagnated or worsened in 86 per cent of countries over the last decade,” said a section of the report.
For the period 2012 to 2021, Jamaica’s CPI ranged between 38 and 44.
How other Caribbean countries are ranked:
The Bahamas
Rank: 30th
Score: 64
Barbados
Rank: 29th
Score: 65
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Rank: 39th
Score: 59
Dominica
Rank: 45th
Score: 55
St Lucia
Rank: 42nd
Score: 56
Grenada
Rank: 52nd
Score: 53
Cuba
Rank: 64th
Score: 46
Jamaica
Rank: 70th
Score: 44
Guyana
Rank: 87th
Score: 39
Trinidad and Tobago
Rank: 82nd
Score: 41
Dominican Republic
Rank: 128th
Score: 30
Haiti
Rank: 164th
Score: 20
